Helena weekly herald., 1887-11-24
RESCUE THE BUILDINGS.
A PLEA FOR THE CONVERSION OF
DEPRAVED STRUCTURES.
What an Observant Artist Says Concern
ing New York's Bad Architecture.
Houses That Are Moral Sins and Streets
That Are Monstrosities.

That Are Monstrosities.
"Wicked."
"Wicked!n
"Yes. Worse than than that. Positively
immoraln
Il don't see it exactly in that light"
"Of course you don't. That is because you
are reporter, and to you any house is good
house so long as the rooms are clean, COM
Portable and well furnished. Now if YOU
were an artist you would very soon discover
the depravity of New York architecture.
Look at that house across the street."
A square plain front this house had, with
narrow, CRASHES plot on either side of the
broad steps. So far this house was as moral
dwelling as the most orthodox and straight
laced artist could have desired. The windows
were large and the interior was concealed by
broad curtains of a dark green material.
There was nothing sinful about the windows
The wickedness was shown in the roof, which
was gabled and otherwise distorted out of all
semblance of Christian form.
"What do you think of that?' asked the
artist
THAT is somewhat faulty"
somewhat? Why, dear boy, it not only
breaks all the commandments at once, but
positively grinds the stone into sand for its
mortar. If that house is not mortal sin
am no theologian But that is not ALL Look
along that line of abandoned str ctures. OBJ
serve the rascally contour of the roof. There
is no grace, strength, evenness or picturesque
unevenneSS in that line. 1t is not even bad
enough to be good. 1t lacks the graphic vii
lainy of band of Texas train robbers, which
pleases the eye and interests the intelligence,
however panied the heart may be. 1t only
presents the bold and witless prosiness of
collection of stale beer drinkers in an east
side police court on Monday morning. Such
depravity is disgusting"
"Aren't you little hard on our architec-
ture!"
A MORAL MoNSTRoSITY.
at is not our architecture. 1t is not any
one else's architecture. 1t is not architecture
at ALL We can't be too hard on such an in
decent exhibition of criminal taste. In every
large European capital there is a symmetry in
the STYLES of architecture. 1t is divided into
the old the renaissance and the modern
usually and the buildings are grouped TO-
gether in an honest and virtuous way. Such
buildings are models. They are patterns and
do the world good. Take Boston, and parts
OF Washington. There you find architec-
tural rectitude. But in New York all the
crimes in the artistic calendar are exempli-
fled with a diabolical plenitude that must
warm the cookies of the old boys heart every
time his mind reverts to the subject. Fifth
avenue is moral monstrosity. Broadway
is an example of abandoned wickedness that
ought to make Christian shudder to con-
template, and the side streets from Tenth
street to the Harlem river contain rampant
crime enough to keep the hangman busy
until the morning after the crack of DOOM
You never looked at it in that light, did
you"
''No, not exactly"
"Well. that is not the worst of it. The eff
feet of living among sins SO generously dis
PLAYED and universally condoned must be per-
nicious in the extreme. 1t stands to reason
that man must deteriorate who lives in
structure which has robbed the grave of the
Sixteenth century for its roof, stolen its stoop
from the tomb of the Seventeenth century,
robbed the archives of the last century for It's
windows, and purloined its cornices from the
notebook of dipsomaniacal builder in the
last stages of mania potu. Can you be sur
prised when such man robs bank, murders
his wife, runs for a political Office or commits
some other social error? No, sir; our alleged
architecture is a fruitful cause of crime,
national curse, a social pest and the sooner
law is enacted Furnishing such crimes as Sc
verely as they deserve, the better it will be
for this country. What we need is a home
missionary society for the salvation of de-
praved buildings, with a mission house on
Fifth avenune, opposite st. Patrick's cathe-
dral, where the chief offenders may have an
opportunity close at hand to mend their ways
and be saved before seismic Nemesis avenges
their crimes against patient and outraged
nature. New York Mail and Express